Rock star Boz Scaggs wanted to open the R&B nightclub of his dreams. He found some high-powered partners and took over a vacant South of Market restaurant called the Warehouse, where he threw a New Year's Eve bash before closing it to remodel. It would be nine months before the doors opened again, and when they did, the place was called Slim's and Scaggs rocked the room before an invited crowd, backed by Texas guitar slinger Anson Funderburgh and Huey Lewis on harmonica.

When something starts, it's never really possible to know how long it's going to last, but 20 years later Scaggs was back on the same stage, before another invited crowd, celebrating the joint's 20th anniversary last month. Time flies when you don't know what you're doing.

During the first few years, the club hewed close to its original vision. Slim's used to keep a house band on retainer, and a procession of R&B and soul greats traipsed across the stage. Slowly, the realities of the nightclub business entered the picture and, before long, the club was presenting everything from wild-eyed punk rockers to jazz greats. In 2002, the partnership acquired a second operation, the Great American Music Hall. Since then, from behind her desk at Slim's, Dawn Holliday, the clubs' general manager, has presided over one of the most successful nightclub operations in San Francisco history. It has not only outlasted virtually all of its competitors, but also entire genres of popular music.

The Isley Brothers play for a lavish holiday party by one of the partners, venture capitalist Frank Caufield; Stanlee Gatti covers the back alley in a massive ice sculpture and hangs flocked Christmas trees upside down on the club ceiling.